6 ms·

This is fantastic news. WebOS has always been full of great ideas, but held back by shaky underpinnings. It's like the inverse of most open-source projects.

This is fantastic news. WebOS has always been full of great ideas, but held back by shaky underpinnings. It's like the inverse of most open-source projects. Great UI, not-so-hot implementation. There's a lot of folks (myself included) that would have been happy to jump in and assist, but couldn't due to the closed-source nature of the platform. The real prize, however, is Enyo. It's a great Javascript framework, and works in virtually any webkit-based browser. The biggest problem was the licensing terms: You could only use it on WebOS phones. Now that barrier's being removed. I'm really looking forward to this. Can't wait to dive into the code. :)

untog 15y ago
Seconding the excitement about Enyo. This could/should be absolutely huge. Speaks to the level of disorganisation in HP that the blog they link to has no mention of the open sourcing, though. Woops.
- Stratoscope 15y ago
  There's a blog post on it now. I don't know how much disorganization that speaks to: Maybe the PR person jumped the gun by a few minutes, maybe the blogger was a few minutes late, or maybe they posted simultaneously and then discovered that their blogging platform has a longer cache than the PR wire. :-) I will check out Enyo, thanks (and megaduck too) for the tip!
- smacktoward 15y ago
  They do mention it in their press release: "HP also will contribute ENYO, the application framework for webOS, to the community in the near future along with a plan for the remaining components of the user space." http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111209xa.html?mtxs=rss-corp-news http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111209xa.html?m...
- aaront 15y ago
  Enyo is most definitely the best mobile development I've ever done. Clean & simple implementation, and I can use the Chrome dev tools to debug.
beatle 15y ago
Fantastic news. WebOS > Android
- notauser 15y ago
  If they had done this before Nokia bought in to Windows Phone 7 then we might actually have seen a great user interface on Nokia's excellent hardware. Maybe RIM could adopt it instead? They could really use a better UI, plus a platform that actually scales well to tablets. Plus they have a large enough install base that once they get rid of their disastrous programming environment developers might actually start writing good apps for their phones.
  - masklinn 15y ago
    RIM has already settled on QNX for its next-generation OS (their tablet runs on it), and I think they just don't have the software/UI chops to handle it either way. I can see WebOS being concurrence/counterbalance to Android and W7P (mostly Android) for other phonemakers than Samsung (who already has bada)
    - nailer 15y ago
      QNX is the underlying RTOS. Application UI is done in Adobe AIR, which is a dead platform. JS/HTML5 on top of QNX would capitalize on their strengths (more responsiveness over Android) and patch over their weaknesses.
      - macspoofing 15y ago
        >The UI is done in Adobe AIR I don't think that's true. Adobe AIR is supported for apps but the actual UI is native.
      - masklinn 15y ago
        > JS/HTML5 on top of QNX would capitalize on their strengths (more responsiveness over Android) and patch over their weaknesses. We're talking about RIM here, how would web technologies (a game they are still late at) "capitalize on their streights"? Let alone "patch over their weaknesses"?
shmerl 15y ago
If you are interested in assisting an open source mobile project, why not to give a hand to Mer and Nemo Mobile? http://merproject.org/ http://merproject.org/ http://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo http://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo
- bergie 15y ago
  I'd love to see Enyo apps on Mer. Probably something we also need to think about in the context of http://apps.formeego.org http://apps.formeego.org
- darklajid 15y ago
  Honest answer, subjective of course: - Because WebOS has more real devices out there, and for cheap. - Development for the platform is ~solved~ and nice (including nice emulator images) - I prefer the card view / just type experience to what I know from MeeGo [] : I was a huge Maemo fanboy in the past, got a couple of their shirts and went to their summits. Still own a N810, but it's mostly a clunky music player now. For me Maemo & MeeGo died by now, WebOS is in a state between worlds and might survive (after this announcement) with some support.
warthogkernel 15y ago
megaduck, you can already dive into parts (well the non-compiled bits) by taking the webOS doctor apart (it's just a jar). The WebOS Internals team is happy to accept any patches which are then made available to users with Preware. So you don't have to wait to get started and we would love more hackers joining the effort. We are also usually available on #wosi-dev on IRC.
dlevine 15y ago
I guess that I'm kind of worried this won't be a good thing (at least for Web OS). Without any concrete plans for upcoming Web OS devices, it is unclear whether HP will actually continue to develop the OS. There aren't all that many devices that can run the current version of Web OS - just the Touchpad and Pre3 AFAIK, and the Pre3 was barely released). It doesn't appear that these are being currently produced or sold. I guess it is possible that Web OS will be ported to Android devices, but the lack of an official development platform is definitely a roadblock. I'm not sure whether Web OS can survive without both current devices and active development by HP. I'm fairly certain that Open Source developers alone won't be able to advance the platform to the next level, although I'm sure that there is a lot that they can contribute. With that said, I'm sure there is a lot of interesting technology that can be mined out of Web OS and integrated into other devices.

untog 15y ago

Seconding the excitement about Enyo. This could/should be absolutely huge. Speaks to the level of disorganisation in HP that the blog they link to has no mention of the open sourcing, though. Woops.

Stratoscope 15y ago
There's a blog post on it now. I don't know how much disorganization that speaks to: Maybe the PR person jumped the gun by a few minutes, maybe the blogger was a few minutes late, or maybe they posted simultaneously and then discovered that their blogging platform has a longer cache than the PR wire. :-) I will check out Enyo, thanks (and megaduck too) for the tip!
smacktoward 15y ago
They do mention it in their press release: "HP also will contribute ENYO, the application framework for webOS, to the community in the near future along with a plan for the remaining components of the user space." http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111209xa.html?mtxs=rss-corp-news http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111209xa.html?m...
aaront 15y ago
Enyo is most definitely the best mobile development I've ever done. Clean & simple implementation, and I can use the Chrome dev tools to debug.

beatle 15y ago

Fantastic news. WebOS > Android

notauser 15y ago
If they had done this before Nokia bought in to Windows Phone 7 then we might actually have seen a great user interface on Nokia's excellent hardware. Maybe RIM could adopt it instead? They could really use a better UI, plus a platform that actually scales well to tablets. Plus they have a large enough install base that once they get rid of their disastrous programming environment developers might actually start writing good apps for their phones.
- masklinn 15y ago
  RIM has already settled on QNX for its next-generation OS (their tablet runs on it), and I think they just don't have the software/UI chops to handle it either way. I can see WebOS being concurrence/counterbalance to Android and W7P (mostly Android) for other phonemakers than Samsung (who already has bada)
  - nailer 15y ago
    QNX is the underlying RTOS. Application UI is done in Adobe AIR, which is a dead platform. JS/HTML5 on top of QNX would capitalize on their strengths (more responsiveness over Android) and patch over their weaknesses.
    - macspoofing 15y ago
      >The UI is done in Adobe AIR I don't think that's true. Adobe AIR is supported for apps but the actual UI is native.
    - masklinn 15y ago
      > JS/HTML5 on top of QNX would capitalize on their strengths (more responsiveness over Android) and patch over their weaknesses. We're talking about RIM here, how would web technologies (a game they are still late at) "capitalize on their streights"? Let alone "patch over their weaknesses"?

shmerl 15y ago

If you are interested in assisting an open source mobile project, why not to give a hand to Mer and Nemo Mobile? http://merproject.org/ http://merproject.org/ http://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo http://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo

bergie 15y ago
I'd love to see Enyo apps on Mer. Probably something we also need to think about in the context of http://apps.formeego.org http://apps.formeego.org
darklajid 15y ago
Honest answer, subjective of course: - Because WebOS has more real devices out there, and for cheap. - Development for the platform is ~solved~ and nice (including nice emulator images) - I prefer the card view / just type experience to what I know from MeeGo [] : I was a huge Maemo fanboy in the past, got a couple of their shirts and went to their summits. Still own a N810, but it's mostly a clunky music player now. For me Maemo & MeeGo died by now, WebOS is in a state between worlds and might survive (after this announcement) with some support.

warthogkernel 15y ago

megaduck, you can already dive into parts (well the non-compiled bits) by taking the webOS doctor apart (it's just a jar). The WebOS Internals team is happy to accept any patches which are then made available to users with Preware. So you don't have to wait to get started and we would love more hackers joining the effort. We are also usually available on #wosi-dev on IRC.

dlevine 15y ago

I guess that I'm kind of worried this won't be a good thing (at least for Web OS). Without any concrete plans for upcoming Web OS devices, it is unclear whether HP will actually continue to develop the OS. There aren't all that many devices that can run the current version of Web OS - just the Touchpad and Pre3 AFAIK, and the Pre3 was barely released). It doesn't appear that these are being currently produced or sold. I guess it is possible that Web OS will be ported to Android devices, but the lack of an official development platform is definitely a roadblock. I'm not sure whether Web OS can survive without both current devices and active development by HP. I'm fairly certain that Open Source developers alone won't be able to advance the platform to the next level, although I'm sure that there is a lot that they can contribute. With that said, I'm sure there is a lot of interesting technology that can be mined out of Web OS and integrated into other devices.